This month’s Japan Times article is about umeboshi, the sour-salty pickled fruit (usually called a pickled plum, though it’s actually more related to an apricot) that’s practically ...
My cancer treatments are over for now, and since my body is no longer being bombarded by gamma rays and such, I am feeling quite a bit better. So now it’s time to get back to the huge task of r...
My Japan Times Food article this month is about all the raw proteins Japanese people like to eat. You probably know that Japanese people like raw fish (in the form of sashimi, and as a topping for su...
It’s been a bit too serious around here, so here’s some fun. I think I’m pretty good at savory cooking, but when it comes to pastry I definitely need more practice. However, my litt...
Today I started a 3-week course of brachytherapy. Unlike the 6-week course of external beam radiation therapy that ended on Friday, which definitely made me feel pretty horrible, brachytherapy is not...
Following up on the last entry from my sketch diary: Just one more week to go with the radiation therapy, and it’s really tough. I was in a lot more physical pain just after surgery (or before ...
My latest article in The Japan Times is about edible cherry blossoms and leaves. Japanese people love the cherry tree so much that not only do they eagerly look forward to their all too short floweri...
I am two and a half weeks into a six week course of radiation therapy, to zap the remaining cancer cells in my body. The course I am doing now is the type where a highly localized beam is aimed at my...
Furusato is a Japanese word for which there really is no direct equivalent in English. Most times it is translated as ‘home town’, and the sentiment is similar. It means the place where y...
On Just Hungry and its sister site, Just Bento, I usually stick to ingredients that are fairly easy to get anywhere, especially if you have access to a decent Japanese grocery store. But since the ta...
I am back home from New York now, after my father’s memorial service last Sunday and an all-too-short Itoh sisters’ reunion. We got home late last afternoon, glad to be back, very tired a...
I am in New York, for family reasons. Not the best of circumstances, and I wasnt even sure Id make it given my lousy health these days, but with the kind help of airport staff, I did. So, what does a...
This month’s Japan Times article is about the traditions and superstitions surrounding Setsubun or Risshun, the first day of spring, which is coming up on February 3rd. The focus of the article...
It’s a bit late to be posting these photos, but here they are. In Europe, the pig is considered a lucky symbol of the New Year; in Switzerland for instance people give each other little pepperm...
Following up on my previous post, here’s more about kitchens - this time about their layout and how they should function. The more time you have to spend in a kitchen, the more important this i...
The subject of ‘kitchens’ has been front and foremost my mind, again. The renovations on the house that I talked about a few months ago haven’t really progressed much beyond what yo...
This has nothing at all to do with Japan, or food, or anything else that I normally write about here. But I am putting it on this site in the off chance that it will be read by regular folk. That is,...
For the past couple of years I’ve been spending most of the winter months in Japan, or somewhere else. Last year I spent most of January in New York and Seattle promoting the Just Bento Cookboo...
I am a few days late posting this, but this month’s Japan Times article is about the traditions surrounding mochi or omochi, the sticky pounded rice cake. Mochi is both eaten and displayed in t...
I’ve written so many articles here on Just Hungry over the eight years of its existence that I’ve forgotten half of them. But one thing I have not really done so far is delve into the sub...
My stepfather is an accountant. He looks and acts exactly like an accountant too, most of the time; sober suit, serious demeanor, the glasses, the thinning hairline. He does have a wry sense of humor...
As I’ve previously mentioned, my father passed away about 3 weeks ago in New York. I did not have the kind of close relationship with my father that I have with my mother (they divorced more th...
It’s been yet another bad week for me, which is why I haven’t been around - again. Last Friday (December 2nd), I was rehospitalized due to my surgery wound getting badly infected. I know ...
To me, persimmons or kaki (柿)are the quintessential fall fruit. Although there are by some counts around 1,000 different varieties of persimmons in Japan alone, they can be broadly divided into two t...
This month’s Japan Times article is about sweet potatoes*, which are called satsumaimo in Japanese. Satsumaimo means “potato from Satsuma”, referring to a region of southern Kyushu ...
Ill be offline for a while (not sure how long), to take care of the health issues. There will be updates over on JustBento hopefully, as The Guy Does Bento series continues, but over here the lights ...
From the age of 3 on, or so my mother says, I would always hang around the kitchen asking questions, tilting conatainers to my level, getting underfoot and in everyone’s way. After about age 5,...
Long time readers of this site may know that I’ve had some pretty serious health problems in the past couple of years. Last year while undergoing emergency surgery for a horribly infected insec...
Japan is so well known for tea - both the beverage itself and the many customs and rituals surrounding it - that many people don’t know that coffee is just as deeply ingrained in daily life as ...
My October article for The Japan Times is all about pork in Japan, with a recipe for tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is arguably the best known pork dish from Japan, though there are plenty of others, since Japan...
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